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A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF POLITICS, LITERA

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EDWARD WILELAN}

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Chis is true Liberty, when Free-born Men, having to advise the Wublic, may speak free.——EuRiPIDEs.

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TURE AND NEWS.

Vee Aas Sees oa ee SSS

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Vou. VIL. CHAR

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ENGLISH SOLDIERS AT THE CAPTURE OF DELHI.

W bo says they cried for quarter ? I did not hear the ery, Bat I heard the sounds of slaughter, And shrieks of agony. They came from bodies moaning, From outraged maids they came, From tortured soldiers groaning At their wives’ and daughters’ shame, No other sounds my ear could reach, No signs of lesser woe : These bore me through the smoking breach, These hurled me on the foe.

Who says they knelt before me? f did not see them knex a

There were dark visions o'er me That turned my heart to sieel,—

Visions of white limbs scething Above the hissing brands,—

Of tender wowen writhing, In the violaters’ hands,

Of scenes of blood and lust Done in the face of day ;

These told we that my cause was just— These netved my hand to slay.

Who says "twas time for pity? I thought of other times—

I saw the accursed City lo the triumph of her crimes ;

I saw the children smitten down, Or hacked from joint to joint,

Or through the howling, hooting Town, Tossed on the bayonet’s point.

Defiled mothers, murdered men, Roge in my path to show,

Wtiat Dethi in her pride was then, Thank God it is changed now.

Who says that 1 am meveiless? Or that my heart is hard? T Ward the voices of distress

From the bloody barratk,yard,— lleard bow the miscreantsdooked on When innoeence was shamed ; Saw the dark room where deeds were done, Whieh never can be ranred. i looked upen the ghastiy welt, W here. treachery’s victims lay, And the tears that from my eyelids fell Were women’s tears that day. Those tears have long departed, fhe horror lingers yet ; Lise tules for which they sturted No lifetime can forget ; They crowd like spettres roand me, sad sounds and horrid sichts, And like a spell they bound me, Through the sieges and the fights; *Midst the shouts of men assailing, Like visions in a dream, Came the sub of infant wailing, And the young girls’ stifled scream. They say upon my SPhead Was a frown which none could melt ,— That U smote as they implored, And stabb’d them as they knelt ;— divat my steps in blood were tinted, From the carnage that I spilt,— That my sword was hacked and dinted, \nd ecrimsoned to the hilt. 1 heard no prayers—l heard no cries From the devoted town, But T kept the dead before my eyes, Aud struck. their murderers down,

Bat oh! it is a fearful part For sinfulman to bear,

To feel within a human heart, But have no power to spare ,—

I dare not test it now—-it burns So wildly in the strife,—

But if its quiet pulse retarns In the evening of my life,

When I reeali the horrors then Of Dethi’s closing day,

IU get zwe-trom the eyes of auen, And bow my knee, and pray.

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(From the Atiantic Monthly, February, '858.)

THE GREAT FAILURE.

The crucial fact, in this epoch of commercial catastrophes, is Hot the stoppage of Smith, Jones, and Robinson,—nor the suspension of speeie payments by a greater or Jess number of baoks,—but the paralysis of the trude of the civilized globe. We have had presented to us, within the last quarter, the remarkable, though by no means novel, spectacle of a suddeu overthrow of business,—in the United States, in England, in France, and over the greater part of the Continent.

At @ period of profound and almost universal peace,—

whep there had been uo marked deficit in the prodactiveness | theory supposes to have been chiefly benefited by such | there had been no extraordinary | deficiency ¢ ‘The scheme of free trade is often denounced by | sults by waste and extravagance,—when fits opponents as British free trade; but we respectfully |

of industry —when dissipation of its re no pestilence or famine or dark rumour of civil revolution | had benumbed its energics,—when the needs for its enterprise | Were seemingly as active and stimulating as ever,—all its habitual funetions are arrested, and shocks of disaster run along the groand from Chicago to Constantinople, toppling down innumerable well-built structures, like the shock of some gigantic earthquake.

Everybody is of course struck by these phenomena, and | everybody ‘has his own way of accounting for them ; it will | hot, therefore, appear presumptuous in us to offer a word on the common theme.

ouly @ suggestion or two as to what the problem itself really. | is. In a difficult or complicated case, a great deal is often | accomplished when the terms of it are clearly stated.

“« * °

It is not enough, in considering the effects before us, to fay that they are the resu'ts of a panic. No doubt there | has been a patiic, @ contagious consternation, spreading itself

LOTTETOWN,

| operation.

| without a throb, these gallant Frenchmen, who laugh as they ‘scale the Malakoff in the midst of belching fires, are not the ‘men to ran like sheep before an imaginary terror, When

# whole uation of such drop their arms aud scatter panic-

=

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1858.

which was to be carried into effect every fifty years; that | Solon, among the Greeks, began his administration with the | Sersachtheia, ov-relicf-laws, designed to rescue the poor | borrowers from their overbearing creditors; and that the)

etna natin nent

[EDITOR anv PUBLISHER,

No. 33.

— ——— = -

on in this Island, to the great prejudice of the morals of the people, and to the serious injury of the Revenue:

1 have great pleasure in referring to the improvement which, during the past year, has been manifested in the pro-

stricken, there must be something behind the panic; there | usurers were a numerous class at Rome, where also the Patri- secution of the fisheries, which, if hereafter continued, will | must be something formidable in it, some real and present cian houses were immense debtor-prisons. But in ancient | doubtless add much to the welfare, and increase the wealth

| danger threatening a very positive evil, and not a mere sym- |

| pathetic and groundless alarm.

Neither do we conceive it as sufficiently expressing or |

times, when the chief source of wealth (aside from conquest | and confiscation by the State) was the labor of slaves, and the principal exchanges were effected either by direct barter |

explaining the whole facts of the case, to say that thejor the coined metals, the system of credit could not have’

currency has been deranged. ‘here has been unquestionably | a great derangement of the eurrency; but this may bave | been an effect rather than a cause of the more general | disturbance ; or, again, it may have been only one cause out | of many causes. [nan article ja the first number of this |

magazine, the financial fluctuations in

,factitious paper-meney. that the universal use of specie in the regulation of the

international trade of the world determines for each nation |

been very conrplicated or general. As for the lending of} money on interest, it appears to have been looked at askance | by most of the ancients ; and the prejudice against it continued, under the fostering care of the Church, far down into the Middle Ages. Wath the emancipation of the towns, however, |

}

this country are) with the splendid development of the Italian republics, with | ascribed to the alternate inflation and collapse of our | Adopting the prevalent theory, |

the noble commercial triumphs of the cities of the Hansa, | credit was recovered from the hands of the Jews, and began | a career of rapid and beneficent expansion. It was in an especial manner promoted by the magnificent prospects un-

| the amount of its metallic treasure, it was there argued that | folded to colonial and miniug enterprise in the discovery *

jany redundant local circulation of paper must raise the level | of local prices above the legitimate specie level, and so induce ,an excess of imports over exports; which imports ean be

local circulation. Of course, then, there isa rapid contraction in the issae of notes, and an inevitable and wide-spread rupture of the usual relations of trade. But although this | View is trae if privciple aad particularly true in its application to the United States, where trade floats almost exclusively upon a paper ocean, it is yet an elementary and local view ; | —local, as not comprising the state of facts in England and | France; and clementary, inasmuch as it omits all reference jto the possibility of a great fluctuation of prices being | produced by other means than an excess or deficiency of | mouey.* In France, as. we know, the currency is almost entirely metailic, while in’ England it is metallic so far as | the lesser exchanges of commerce are coucerned; there is an fe Marte: impropriety, therefore, in extending to the fivancial | difficulties of those natious a theory fouuded upon a peculiarity | in the position of our own.

If, however, it be alleged that the disturbances there are }only a reaction from the disturbances here, we must say that

jthat point is not clear, and Brother Jonathan may be | eXaggerating his commercial importauce. The ties of all the tuurilime nations are growing more and more intimate every ; year, and the trouble of one iv getting to be more and more ithe trouble of the others in consequence; but as yet any |unsettled balance of American trade, compared with the | whole trade of those nations, is bu‘ as the drop in the bucket. Johu Bull, with « productive industry of five thousand ithillions of dollars a year, and Johnny Crapaud, with an industry only less, are not both to be thrown flat on their | backs by the failure of a few millions of money remittances ‘from Jonathan. The houses immediately engaged in the | American trade will suffer, and others again immediately dependent upou them ; but the disturbing shock, as it spreads through the wideuing circle of the national trade, will very

- |scon be dissipated and lost in its immensity. That is, it

; will be lost, if trade there is itself sound, and not tottering junder the same or similar conditions of weakness which | produced the original default in this country ; in which event, we submit, our troubles are to be considered as the mere

| weeidental occasion of the more general downfall,—while the

real cause is to be sought in the internal state of the foreign jnations. Accordingly, let any one read the late exposure of the methods iu which business is transacted among the ‘Glasgow banks, the London discount-houses, aud the specu- _lators of the French Bourse, and he will see at a glance that ‘we Americans have no right to assume and ought not to be |cbarged with the entire responsibility of this stupendous syncope. Our bankruptcy has aggravated, as our restoration jwill relieve the general effects ; but the vicious currency on ; this side the water, whatever domesti¢ sins it may have to ‘auswer for, cannot properly be made the scapegoat for the offences of the other side of the water. The disasters abroad ‘have occurred under conditions of currency differing in many respects from our own, and we believe that if there had beeu }no troubles in America, there would still have been consi- jderable troubles in Hogland and Dance, as, indeed, the _finaucial writers of both these countries long ago predicted from the local signa,

The same train of remark may be applied to those who impute the existing embarrassments to our want of a pro- tective tariff; for, granting that to be an adequate explanation }of our own difficulties, it is not therefore an adequate explanation of those in Kurope. The externa! characteristics of the phenomena before us are everywhere pretty much the same, namely,—a prosperous trade gradually slackening, an increasing demand for money, depreciation and sacrifice of securities, numerous failures, disappearance of gold, pauie, ‘and the complete stagnation of every branch of laber ; and it | should seem that the cause or causes to be assigned for them | ‘ought also to be everywhere pretty much the same. At any | rate, no Jocal’cause is in itself to be regarded as sufficient, | unless it can’ be shown that such local cause has a universal | But who will undertake to contend that the | absence of a protective system here is enough to prostrate |

both Great Britain and rranee,—the nations which the same |

suggest that if irs operations lead to some serious a destruc- | tion of British imterests as is now alleged, the phrase is at} least a misnomer. No! as the characteristics of the crisis are common to the United States, England, and France, so the, causes of that crisis are to be sought in something which is | also common to the United States, England, and France.»

Now the one thing common fo all these nations, and to all commercial! nations, is the universal use of Credit, in the transactions of business. We conceive, therefore, that the existing condition of things may be most correctly and com- |

4 Let it be premised, however, that we 'prehensively described as a suspension of credit, and the State for the Colonies on this subject shall be communicated ° sot undertake a scientific solution of the problem, but) consequent” pressure fur payment of immense masses of to you.

outstanding debt. This, we say, is the central fact, common

to all the nations ; and the solution of it, as a problem, is to jesty’s East Indian possessions has already been reduced, by | be sought in some vice or disturbing element common to the British valor and heroism, toa point which leaves no room

general system, and not in any local incident or cause, |

\the New World, by the stimulus and the facilities afforded to industrial skill by the researches of natural science, and | by the ewancipation won for all the activities of the human ‘paid for only in specie,—the very basis of the inordinate |

mind through the free principles of the Refurmation. Thus, by degrees, credit came to intervene in nearly every op- | eration of commerce and of social exchange,—from the small daily dealings of the mechauic at the shop, to the larger wholesale trausa@ttons of merchant with merchant, and to the prod gious expenditures and debts of imperial goveraments, Credit by note of hand, credit by book account, eredit by mortgages and hypothecations, ciedit by bills of exchange, credit by certificates of stock, eredit by bunk-notes and post-notes, credit by exchequer ard treasury dra‘ts, credit, in short, in a thousand was, enters into trade, filling up ail its channels, furning all its wheels, freighting all its ships, coming down from the past, pervading the present, hovering over the future, reaching every nook and affecting every man and woman in the civilized world,

Such is the extent of credit; but let it be remarked in connection, that, im all these innumerable and multifarious furms of it, in ali the stupendous interchanges of Mine and Thine, the ultimate reférence is to one sole standard of value, iwhich is the value of’ the precions metals. The civilized ; world has adopted these as the universal solvent of its vast j|masses of obligation. It is assumed that some standard is indispensable; it is asserted to be the imperative duty of governmenis, ii they would not muke their exactions of taxes arbitrary, unequal, ard oppressive,—if they would render the dealings of individuals mutual and just,—if they would preserve the propertysand labor of their subjects from the merciless caprices of the powerful, and keep society from reverting to a wore or less barbarous state,—to supply a fixed and equeble eyemeasure; and the majority of the governments Lave selected gold aud silver as the best. As seemingly less ehaugeable in quantity and value than anything else, as imperishable, a» portable, as divisible, as both convenient and safe, the precious metals challenge superiority over every other product ; and accordingly every contract and every debt is resolvable into gold and silver. Krom this fact; the reader will see at once the prodigious sizuilicauce of those materials in the economy of trade, aud the prime necessity that they should be not ouly uniform ip value, but so equally distributed that they may be easily

‘attainable when needed. virtual change in the value ofthe vast variety of obligations which are measured and liquidated by them; and every apprehension of their searcity or disappearauce, by whatever ‘cause excited, is an apprehension of embarrassment on the part of all those who have debts to pay or to receive.

(To be continued.)

Colonial Legislature,

On Tuesday, the 16th day of Febiuary, 1858, the Lieut. Governor came duwa to the Council Chamber, and with the

usual) formaliiies, opened the Fourth Se% on of the Twenticth

General Assembly, with the following Speech ;—

Mr. President and Honorable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council :

Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House af Assembly :

1 have convened you, at the usual period of the year, for the consideration of the affiirs of the Island, relying with full confidence that your Jabors will be resumed in a spirit which will attest your zeal for the public welfare.

A beneficent Providence has again blessed us with an abundant harvest; and the state of the Revenue, which ex- ceeds in amount that of the previous year, is satisfactory.

L must sot, however, omit to direct your attention to the

‘avoidably postponed to the present Session of the Imperial |

probable diminution of Revenue in the current year, which there is but tuo much reason to apprekend will follow from the depression so universally experienced at present in all branches of commercial industry, and from which this com- munity is not exewpt.

Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly:

The accounts of the past year, and the estimates for the current year, shall be laid before you, and [ rely on your readiness to grant the necessary supplies for the public service.

Every ¢bange in their value is a!

and prosperity of the Country.

The marked improvement in Agriculture and Farm Stock throughout this [sland is, under Providence, attributable to the liberal granis made by the Legislature for the encourage- ment of that important branch of industry; and I have no doubt that your fostering care will still be extended to so desirable an object.

You do not, 1 trust, require to be assured of my ready

co-operation in any measures you may entertain for the honor and advantage of the Island.

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY. Tvespay, February 16, 1858. After the members of the House had returned to their own apartinent, the Hon. Col. Secretary presented the RKeterns of the election of James C, Pope, hsq, who was elected for the Third District of Prince County, in the room of Hon, W. W. Lord. ‘The Hon. Mr. Montgomery and the Hon. T. LH. Hevilathd

introduced the new member, to whom the customary oaths were administered,

Mr. MUIRHEAD said, before the gentleman (Mr. Pope) took his seat, he had en unpleasant duty to perform, which was the introduction of a Resolution, written at the instance of petition he had received from several of his constifvents, the adopton of which he moved, and which was as followa: —

Resolved, That James C. Pope, Esq , the électe’ member for the Third District of Prince County, be requested to deliver to the Clerk of this House a Schedule, containing the particulars of his Qualification, conform»bly to the. provisions of the Act of the eleventh Victoria, cap. 21, intituled “an Act to con- solidate and improve the Laws for the eleetion of members to serve in the General Assembly,” and that Mr. ‘Pope shall de- liver to the eaid Clerk the title, deeds, documents or papers, and in which he claims tile to the property in said Schedole, or true copies, duly attested.

Mr. H. HAVILAND said, before the motion was pat on

the Resolution just read, lie thought a time sheuld be spec fied in the Resolution when-such Qualification should be required.

Hon. COL. SECRETARY said. he presumed the Honse did not wish to tie Mr. Pope down to time, and thought that, of necessary, he should have a few days given him but, in the meantime, have no vote on any measures before the House.

Mr. MUIRH“AD.—The statute expressly said, thet on a member taking his seat-he should render ‘to the Clerk the titles, &e., of vroperty upon which he bases*his Qualification. Mr. Muirhead then reed thatportion of the statute alluded to, which ig as foliows:—

‘* Every member, before he assumes his seat, or shall pre- sume to vote in the Howse of Assembiyy if thereto required by order of ihe House, shall deliver to the Clerk of the Louse & Schedule, contaimmg the particulars of his Qualification, con. ' formably to this Act, and shall also deliver to the said Clerk jthe ttle, deeds, decuments or papers, under which he elaima [title to the property in said Schedule, or true copies thereof, ) duly attested.” :

Ile presumed Mr. Pope had the: required decuments now, and was prepared to submit thei.

Hon. the SPEAKEK.—is the motion secoaded ?

Hon. COL. TREASURER.—i secoud the motion

The resolution wag then put and carried, and Mr. Pope snb- mitted to the Clerk the Schedule, &c., of ‘his Qualification.

Hon. the SPEAKER seté, the matter might be postponed unul the standiwg Committees were appointed, and the Go- vernor’s Speech suswered,

Mr. Hl. HAVILAND thought the suggestion of the Hon. the Speaker a good one, and that there would be plenty of time ) QO attend to this effuir when the more pressing business was | gone througn,

Hon. COL. SLCRETARY differed fromthe last speaker, and suid, if a week. or two elapsed without acnion being taken upon the matter, and Mr. Pepe be -eilowec to tuke his seat, | under the present circuustances, the House could not make the

| neeessary requiry,

APPOINTMENT OF COMMITTEES,

' The Yolfowing Coimitiees were then appointed :—

To Proving Srationany-—Hon. Col. Treasurer, Mesere. Clark and Muirhead.

Mr. CLARK moved a committee to receive tenders for printing the Jouraals, aud Me-srs. Clark, Mushead and Me- Donald were named, when

(fon. Mr. LONG\S ORTH said, he thought it would be only fair to appoint a member of the minority on this committee, and would suggest that Hon, Mr. Haviland be placed upoo.it,

Hon. COL, SECRETARY said, a8 it was not a usual thing to appoint mewbers of the minority upon standing Commuttees, he did not see why the House should deviate from such practice in the present instance.

After some further discussion—the Houee divided on an amendment to the original motion, that the committee be appointed by the House.

Ayes—Hons, Messrs. T’ H. Haviland, Palmer, Longworth, Montgomery, Messrs. H. Hliviland, Douse, Yeo, Pope, Laird and Mc Vonald—10,.

Nays—Uons. Col. Secretary, Col, Treasurer, Mooney, Whelan, Wightman, Messrs. Perry, Clark, Dingwell, Mun- head, Cooper and MeGil}— Lf.

The original motion was then passed, and the committee stood as follows :—Messrs. Clajk, Muirhead and H. Haviland.

Commirree TO PREPARE AN ANSWER TO His ExceLtency 8 Speecu — Messrs. Cooper, McGill, Mcionald, Muirhead, Laid, Perry and Llon. Mr. Whe an.

Goop Corresponvents wita Leeistative Couxci —

Mr. President and Honorable Gentlemen of the Legislative

Council : Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly:

The circumstances of the last Session having been such as’ to prevent Her Majesty’s Government from proposing to -arliament to guarantee the Loan intended to be raised for the purchase of Lands in this (sland, that measure was un-

Parliament. ; wa A copy of a Despatch from the Principal Secretary of

The Mutiny which has so lamentably disturbed Her Ma-

to. doubt its final suppression; but the uncxampled atrocity

Hons. Col. Secretary, Col. Treasurer, Wightman, Haviland, Messrs. McGill and Pope.

Private Bicas—iion. Mr. Whelan, Messrs. Clark and Haviland,

Pusiic Accounts — Mr. McDonald, Hons. Messrs. Haviland, Longworth, Montgomery, Messrs. MeGuil, Perry and Muirhead,

To Revise Journars—Mr. Muirhead, tons. Messrs. Mooney, Longworth, Wightman and Mr. Laird.

To Examine Bitts Te Bk bygrossep— Messrs Clock, Mc- Donald, McGill, Muirhead and Hon. Mr, Longworth.

On Exetnine Laws—Messrs. McDouald, Muirhead and Hon. Mr. Haviland.

The Hon. Col. Secretory moved the suspension of the standing order respecting to the introduction of bills, that he might introduce a bill rejative t» Fishery Reserves. ‘Uhe ruie was suspeaded, the Bull read a first tune @ ordered to be read a second time to-gorrow,

On motion of Hon. Col. Secretary, it was Ordered—That a copy of the Journals of this House be sent

Credit has gained 0 ‘enormous an exfensior within the by whieh it has been characterized bas occasioned a vast to His Exceileney the Lievienant Governor, each day, a5 soon

last two centuries that it may almost be pronounced the amount of destitution and suffering to the surviving victims, | #8

over the commetcial world, und strewing the earth with in-| distinctive feature of modern times. It existed, undoubtedly which appeals forcibly on their bebalf to the generous sym} humerable wrecks of fortune; but that actoutits for nothing,!in ancient days,—for its correlative, Debt, existed ; and we pathy of their fellow subjects in all parts of Her Majesty's aud. simply describes a symptom. What is the cause of the! know, that, among the Jews, Moses evacted a-sponging law, dominions.

aie iiself? These daring Yankees, who are in the habit — . braving the wildest tempests on every sea, these sturdy |

““glish, who march into the mouths of devouring cannon

* A failure of one half the cotton or wheat crop, we suspect, Would play a considerable part among “ the prices,” whatever the state of the note circulation. i

I must again earnestly recommend to your consideration the adoption of more efficient means for the suppression of | iJlicit traffic, which there is no reason to doubt is still carricd |

may be, afier the adjournment. On motion of Hoa, Col. Treasurer, it was Ordered, That the postage on ali letters and printed papers to and from members of ihis Llouse, during the Seesiun, be charged to the contingent eccounts of the House. ‘The time for receiv.ng petitions was hited to March Nh. Adjourned to ten o’clock to-morrow.

T. Kirwan, Rep,